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We spoke to versatile singer/songwriter Beckah Shae.
As far as radio play on Radio Hayah goes, Beckah Shae is one of the most popular independent artists. She has a staggering 15 different songs featured on CR radio and her new single, "King" - a delicious piece of divine proclamation over a mid-tempo groove conceived by her producer husband Jack Shocklee - is well up to standard. Clearly a lot has happened to the singer/songwriter down the years, who has delivered a stream of quality releases which have taken in everything from pumping dance music, worship songs, soul balladry, children's ministry songs, Christmas music and R&B. Here's what this most passionate and anointed of artists told us:
RH: Your song "King" has just gone onto the Radio Hayah playlist. It's your first release for quite a while.
Beckah: "We haven't released anything since the 'Mighty' album. It's been almost a couple of years. Parenting is the main reason for the delay. Hope is my third child, and she is such a pleasure, so I just wanted to take some time to be with her. She is turning three this week. Jack and I were working on music all along. It's time now to start releasing new and interesting things."
Tony: Radio Hayah, has a policy that the source of music being offered to us for airplay is an irrelevance when it comes to selecting what we play. There are many radio stations around who will only play record label-sourced music, and if they do independent artists' releases, they're put into a little cultural ghetto programme, which they'll call something like Unsigned or Independents, and keep it away from the music on their actual playlist. As an independent artist, this must be pretty disappointing for you.
Beckah: "It is. I like your way of doing things. It sounds pretty normal to me. There's so much amazing talent. Not only talent. I'm a heart person, so I could care less about the talent if the heart is pretty screwed up. I want to hear something that's pure and that is actually going to affect my spirit and my soul. But to find that beautiful balance of great talent mixed with that is rare. Record labels invest a lot in their artists, so they believe in them, but that doesn't mean that there isn't other great talent out there. We've been doing this for a long time independently, and the reason we've done that isn't because we're weaker - we are in a sense, because we don't have the machine driving and marketing us - but because we really believe wholeheartedly in the vision God gave us. If we're ever going to partner and attract a team that's going to help us, we really want to know that they're in alignment with that same vision, that they really believe in what God is doing through us. There's people out there that can really benefit from the sounds and the music and the songs God is using people to do. So I think there's a breaking point that is happening right now. I think it's going to be very surprising to a lot of people what's going to happen soon. Honestly, there's a lot of really great radio stations tired of it, and they want to play the good stuff like you.
"Unfortunately, many people are locked into a kind of box when it comes to their attitude towards different styles of music. I can remember in 2010/2011, we were pretty much the first ones to bring out a four-on-the-floor beat with a worship song. That was new. We took the risk, and the reason we were able to do that is because we don't have a box. Not that record labels aren't a great help: they have a lot of strengths because it's support, it's a team. I would love to have more of that. But it wasn't a bad thing we didn't, because we were able to take these risks. It's one of those things where I think if people really rose up and got themselves out of the box of, 'What does this person think? Are they going to play it?', and just step up in the will of God and be obedient, we would hear more things that God intended us to do. It's not that hard. I just wish people would get bold like that. Even the radio stations. They might not be making the music, but they have a choice. Be free and say, 'I'm going to take a risk and play this, because they're listening to God, and not what they think the consumer is going to do.' It's never more of a risk to obey God.
"Being able and free to do whatever God wants us to say and do, it's the greatest freedom. We can just go with it. We've been doing this 14 years, and we used to tailor our songs to the radio stations because we thought that's the only way we're going to get this played. They say, 'OK, turn the bass down here.' Our second single that was a top 10 on the radio, called 'Life', had a shofar that started off the song. The radio stations were clueless. 'What is this sound? What is the shofar? People won't understand the Biblical significance of the shofar. Take that out, and then we'll play it. Take this bass out, take this out, do this.' We used to have to tailor our songs so that the radio would play it. We figured that it's going to be more effective if the mass hears it. We want people to hear the word of God. But it was really disappointing and frustrating because we had to tailor our songs. After this many years, we just got to a point where it's like, 'Forget that, dude! We just want to make the sound that God gives us.' God spoke one word and the entire universe was created. There's so much power in sound, the things that are being released. If God has given us something, we can't dumb it down. We can't be worried about who's going to like it, who's not going to like it. We've gotten to a place now where we're like, 'God, if you want us to release this sound then you just go ahead and release it out. You put it where you want it to go.' We've gotten to travel around, go to so many different countries - it's international - so it's a huge privilege for us to say, 'God, you're going to trust us with this. We're not going to let doorkeepers tell us what we should and shouldn't do.'"
RH: Tell me about "King".
Beckah: "A lot of times we focus so much on all the things that are happening around us in the world, and God was calling me to a place where he's like, 'I'm a fire! I'm the king! I'm on the throne. I rule over the heavens and the earth. I'm the alpha and the omega.' He was like, 'If you focus on me, it will lift you higher.' We just need to honour who he is. He's the king, he's the Lord of lords, he's sovereign. There's so much separation and deception and hopelessness and confusion happening all over the earth, but there is the king, and he reigns. He's the Lion of Judah, he's coming soon - he roars. When he opens his mouth to speak, it's almost like there's this roar that reaches every corner and makes the enemy tremble. Creator of the Universe! What is bigger than that? He put all the stars in the sky and named them. There's nothing greater than the King of the Universe, the Creator of the Universe. It's not really that deep. To me, I'm just honouring the king.
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